Amy Tan Mother Tongue

Amy Tan reveals the pros and cons of growing up in a family whos primary language is not English in her article , "Mother Tongue". Tan allows her readers to take a trip down memory lane where she discusses the situations she dealt with having a mother , whose English was not up to par. Though Tan feelings towards her mother speech changes throughout her life , she realizes her mother native tongue served as a big inspiration for her becoming a writer. Tan not only shares her feelings toward her mother but also shared her feelings towards the different languages she uses in her daily life. Tan expresses herself through three different talks , the talk of intimacy which she uses with her family , English , and her native language Chinese.

Amy Tan was born in California , several years after her parents immigrated from China to San Francisco. And because Tan is second generation Chinese, Tan spoke English very well compared to her family whom primary language was not English. Tan being a scholar of English enjoyed the use of words and the imagery that came along with it. Tan gave many prestigious lectures regarding her writings in a language in which she learned through school and books , but it is not until her mom walked in on one of her discussions that Tan realized just how many different Englishes she used in her life. " The nature of the talk was about my writing , my life , and my book , The Joy Luck Club... My mother was in the room . And it was perhaps the first time she had heard me give a lengthy speech , using the kind of English I have never used with her"(63).

Due to Tan mother's limitations of English , Tan found herself becoming a personal translator for her mother during her early years . Chinese being Tan's mother primary language caused people to categorize her mother's speech as broken when she did try to speak English. It was very hard for people to understand her mother , which often caused her to be tooken advantage of and disregarded in many situations. Tan mother often suffered a great deal expressing her feelings to people and needed assistance from Tan in order for her to get her point across to and to be taken seriously. Tan speaks of a situation where her mother went to the hospital to get a CAT scan and when she called acquiring the results , they ignored her and did not apologize for the misplacement of the scan.It was up to Amy to call the hospital since her mother's broken English caused her to be looked over . "She said they did not seem to have any sympathy when she told them she was anxious to know the exact diagnosis since her husband and son both died of brain tumors "(65). After calling the hospital herself and explaining her mothers concern, they gave Tan an apology and promised the scan would be